ANGELA B. PAN

Whether you’re going for fun, to visit family or to break out of your everyday normal routine, we all want to create memories that will last a lifetime while traveling. Capturing images with your camera is the best way to relive those memories and share them with loved ones when you return home. So grab your mobile camera or a DSLR, these are some of my best tips to make sure you come away from your travels with images you are proud of. And you don’t even have to be a professional photographer to capture them. It may take a lot of preparation work, but in the end, it will all be worth it.

Plus photography is super fun 🙂

1. Scout Photo Locations From Your Computer

One of the best ways to start preparing for your trip is to start planning all the beautiful sights you want to see before you leave. But if it’s your first time visiting a new place, all the options and maps can get a little confusing. Scouting out various photo locations and points of interest before you leave will help reduce stress. It will allow you to not waste time on your vacation and you could hit the ground running as soon as you arrive. Plus if you’re going to a very popular tourist destination, you can be prepared by obtaining tickets and plan for events in advance and not have to worry about lines.

So here’s what I like to do before I even leave on my trip,  I like to begin my research on social media.Click here to read more

So after my lightning practice last week at the Jefferson Memorial aiming at the Washington Monument, I had another opportunity to shoot lightning the very next day. This time I was at the Artechouse, which you should definietly go visit. Their latest exhibit is probably my favorite so far. It’s a celebration of lights that really can not be missed. Anyways, I was about to leave the exhibit when I got an alert on my phone saying that lightning struck 3 miles away from my current location. So you know what that means right? Leave asap so you can go storm chasing!

I figured that the US Capitol was the closest, cool looking building to me. Luckily it hadn’t started raining yet and I always have my tripod in my car so I parked as close as I could to the Capitol and made my way over. I had a blast! The wind was blowing and the lightning strikes were crazy big. While I was at the Jefferson Memorial, I had to wait some time between each strike maybe a 2-3 minutes but this time they were coming every 15-20 seconds. It was AWESOMEEEE. I was out there for only 30 minutes or so before the real big rain hit but I’m super happy with the way that this turned out.

Every time the lighting struck it would light up the sky to this amazing blue/purple color. It was such a beautiful show. There were even people who were leaving the Capitol that couldn’t help but to stop and take selfies. Such an exiting night to say the least. I ran back to the car as soon as the rain really started to pick up and it was all good in the neighborhood.

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/13th of a second ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm.

Out of all the cherry blossom images I took this year, this one has got to be my favorite. I admit theres not as much color, saturation or editing that was involved in this one compared to some of my other images but I can’t help but love the mood it evokes. It’s also a take on the cherry blossoms that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before from the Tidal Basin. It was from last Monday when it was super foggy out. I had been walking around all morning capturing the fog and was having a total blast. But like everything else, the fun had to stop at some point. I walked the scenic route back to my car from the Jefferson Memorial and was stunned when I saw this. The high tide had risen so high that the low hanging cherry blossom branch was able to touch the water. It was just so soft and delicate, I had to find the perfect way to capture it all.

It was also amazing that there was barely anyone around. Maybe because it was a Monday morning and most people were at work at that time, but everything was just so silent and still. The couple sitting on the branch had been there for a while taking selfies. I had to include them to convey a feeling of peace and calmness of just relaxing on the tree trunk.

My camera settings were F/6.3 at 1/80 of a second ISO 200 with my 28-70mm. No particular reason for my lens choice. I think I had just been walking around with it on and didn’t feel the need to switch to the wide angle. I wanted to capture the scene as quickly as possible.

This is my favorite for now. I took so many images these past few days. Another one may pop up later that I love even more. We shall have to see <3